49 



THE HOBBY. 



Falco subbuteo, Linn. 



Has once at least been obtained in Ireland. 



In old county histories and other works, the hobby is mention- 

 ed, but when more than the mere name is given, — as in Smith's 

 Cork, — the observations suggest that some other species is meant. 

 The hobby is there noticed, as breeding " on the sea-coast." Mr. 

 Templeton has remarked, that one was seen during the breeding 

 season of 1800, at the rocks of Ballynascreen mountains; and 

 another in 1802, at Lough Bray rocks, county of Wicklow. I 

 cannot, however, but think that the male peregrine falcon may 

 have been mistaken for the hobby in these instances, as viewed 

 from a distance it might readily be. Specimens were not ob- 

 tained for examination. We read, that it is the nature of the 

 hobby to frequent wooded and cultivated districts, and breed in 

 trees, though from what we know of others of its tribe, rocks 

 in lieu of these might possibly be selected for its eyrie. In Nor- 

 way, indeed, Mr. Hewitson remarks : — "We met with a nest of the 

 hobby, placed upon a projecting ledge of rock on the face of a 

 steep precipice, which, overhung with brushwood, formed a part of 

 the beautiful scenery of one of the lovely lakes of that country."* 

 The specimen, in virtue of which this hawk was recorded as a very 

 rare visitant to Donegal, t is not preserved, and the writer of the 

 notice admits, in a letter to me, that his case is ' ' not proven." 

 Dr. Harvey of Cork kindly informed me to the following effect, 

 in June, 1848: — "1 have lately got information winch leaves no 



tors to Macgillivray's History of British Birds, (vol. i. 182, and vol. iii. p. 303,) 

 that by the name of goshawk, this species is commonly known in Peebles-shire; from 

 which circumstance, and the fact that the peregrine falcon (as I learn from Sir 

 William Jardine) has several eyries in the Moffat hills and other localities not far dis- 

 tant from the Border, I cannot but believe that it must often have been the bird so 

 pleasingly introduced in the old Scottish ballads, as the "gay goshawk," &c. — Sec the 

 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and other works. The frequency with which it 

 is mentioned, would, of itself, lead us to believe that the bird was either common in 

 the country, or that the name was applied to some common species. The peregrine 

 falcon, I presume, must have been at all periods more frequent in Scotland than the 

 goshawk. 



*Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 15. 

 t Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. 5. p. 579. 

 VOL. I. E 



